Early Birds

Today’s theater audiences expect to be warned if a play contains smoking, gunshots, nudity or any of the things that kids look for on Cinemax. The old souls at the Gorilla Theatre don’t pamper, though. Instead, they expect the audience for Aristophanes’ The Birds, this year’s selection for the untraditional company’s annual Greek show, to hit Frank A. Theis Park this morning in time for a 7:30 a.m. start. Still, the Gorillas do offer a warning: “This production will be profoundly silly!” No surprise there; past Greek shows have paired ancient-style crack-of-dawn staging with direction and performances of remarkable invention. Millennia after its debut, Aristophanes’ comedy remains a satiric and philosophical lark, the story of two dreamers who flee civilization to live in the sky, among the birds. The resulting barbed silliness lashes out as a bird might: with feathers but also with talons. Performances run Saturday and Sunday this week and next. (There’s also a 7 p.m. show tomorrow.) Look for the show just north of Brush Creek, where Brush Creek Boulevard meets Oak. Where better to see this than creek banks perpetually dotted with goose shit?

Sat., July 11, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., July 12, 7:30 p.m.; Mon., July 13, 7 p.m.; Sat., July 18, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., July 19, 7:30 p.m., 2009